A number of data networks or data distribution systems exist and are extremely robust and have proven useful for high speed, and high bandwidth, data communication. In this sense the term data is intended to include any form of digital or analogue data, including without limitation: voice, image, video, text, binary or encrypted data.
An example of a data network is often referred to as a local area network (LAN) and includes the type of communication networks often found in offices and intranet systems. The backbone of such LANs is usually CAT 5 cabling and a variety of different forms and category of CAT 5 exist.
Another type of network that is secure often within an office or company and is referred to as ETHERNET since the development of wireless technology such as 802 MHz there has been a rapid growth of so-called wireless networks, nowadays often referred to as ‘Wi-Fi’.
In domestic and office environments there is also a short range group of networks that have grown up using infra red (IR) direct line of sight peripherals, which have been successfully sending signals from personal computers and laptops to and from peripherals such as printers and scanners. Other short range networks employ Bluetooth (Trade Mark) technology for short range, low data transmissions.
The demands and success of these networks depend upon many factors, including: cost of implementation, flexibility, ability to integrate into new and existing systems, maximum data handling capacity and resistance to noise and suitability to hostile environments.
Increasingly networks have been interconnected to enable pooling of data flow and data management. An example of such systems is universal management traffic systems (UMTS) and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technologies, where, for example a digitised telephone conversation may be transmitted, as packets, via a number of different transmitted links or data carriers, for example a domestic access digital communication telephone (DECT) telephone.
A suitable junction device in use, is connected, to a data terminal and receives an optical communication signal and has an independent power supply for forwarding the signal, for example, to a handheld device. In addition this self power facility includes a battery back-up (in the form of an uninterrupted power supply—UPS) so that signals sent to and received from the Internet before it is received for example at a base station then via a wide area network (WAN) to remote handheld units or mobile telephones. Such variable and flexible data carrier networks are often referred to as universal mobile telecommunications systems (UMTS).